People have lost their sense of humor. In former times, we constantly made jokes about different races.
I’m more focused on making a scene seem real as opposed to perfect.
I don’t see myself as conservative, but I’m not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.
My wife and I are both Libertarian; she was a Democrat and I was a Republican, and we both met in the middle somewhere.
You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.
You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.
To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you’re wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation.
You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know.
My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I’d play ’em over and over.
There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.
I was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it, then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it, that’s OK, too. It’s whatever suits you.
Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.
When you hang a man, you better look at him.
Being comfortable is over-rated.
I don’t write. I usually look for material by other people. Sometimes I change things or adapt things but I don’t write from scratch. I wish I had that ability.
They’ve got this crazy actor who’s 82 years old up there in a suit. I was a mayor, and they’re probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.
If you’re doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality. But you really don’t know what was going on in the person’s mind. You just know what was going on in the minds of people around him.
I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.
Tomorrow is promised to no one.
I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit and vegetables.